Krampus was a Northern European demon who, according to folklore, would accompany St. Nick to the homes on X-mas, or stop by soon after. His job was to beat the bad children with a stick and then take them either home to eat for a Holiday dinner or pack them off to Hell(local traditions vary).

The Krampus tradition was banned in European country for some time. Evidently, the thought of an ugly long tongued devil eating children didn't sit too well with modern political correct thinking.

However, in some countries people are now beginning to once again celebrate this character with parades and other events. Some people can see the value in scaring the living bejeezes out of kids around the Holidays when they are often at their most obnoxious. From what I can gather from the youtube videos there appears to be a substantial amount of drinking as part of the festivities. It's like Christmas and Halloween rolled into one.

That might roll out my way soon. The first time I saw that train was on my commute home a few years ago. I didn't even know it existed, so it made a pleasant change when being held up at the crossing to be held up by that instead of a boring old freight train with graffiti on it.